South Winnipeg CC serving a growing area

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This article was published 23/04/2019 (2558 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you aren’t already familiar with the South Winnipeg Community Centre, that’s OK. Consider this an introduction to the new centre serving one of the fastest growing communities in southwest Winnipeg.

In November 2014, the boards of the Richmond Kings and Waverley Heights Community Centres were dissolved and the new South Winnipeg Community Centre was created.

The goal of amalgamation — to maximize the two centre’s resources and reduce duplication — has been largely successful, president Julie Fisher said, with the exception of one ongoing struggle.

“A lot of people still don’t even know it’s happened,” Fisher said. “I think what’s really going to help us is we finally got our outdoor signs changed in front of our sites, so what you’re seeing now is ‘South Winnipeg Community Centre.’
“Here’s hoping now that the outdoor signs have changed, it’ll now be better,” she said.

The South Winnipeg Community Centre serves the neighbourhoods of Fort Richmond, Richmond West, Waverley Heights and the newly developed communities in Waverley West (Bridgwater, South Pointe and Prairie Pointe). It’s also at the centre of an ongoing conversation at City Hall about the construction of community recreation facilities in new residential developments.

By the time Waverley West is built out, an estimated 30,000 additional people will be living in the community centre’s catchment area. The community centre has been working with the area city councillor and City Hall for years to build a new facility in Waverley West. Plans for a recreation campus at Kenaston Boulevard and Bison Drive are moving along, but no firm construction or completion dates have been set.

In the meantime, Fisher said the community centre is doing its best with the facilities it has. More than 800 kids come through the centre annually for soccer alone. Hockey (Silverstone arena is under the SWCC’s purview), baseball, softball, basketball, and lacrosse are also popular in the community.

“It’s non-stop interest and there’s waitlists now, because right now what we suffer from is lack of fields to run the programming,” Fisher said of the soccer program.

“Of the infrastructure that we have, it’s older, so there’s a lot to maintain, upgrade and keep in good working order,” she noted. “The struggle is to keep functioning in an environment where costs and the people relying on your resources are going up, yet your funding is a couple years behind.

“We’re also struggling with access to fields, especially in our area we have new development, and the developers have put in soccer fields or a baseball diamond,” she added. Disagreements between developers and the City of Winnipeg over the quality of the recreational resources at transfer time has left the community centre in the lurch, Fisher said. “We’re waiting for that field to be open to start programming on it.”

The SWCC has an annual operating budget of $1.2 million, including an operating grant around $230,000. The centre also accesses Green Team grants, Community Places grants, Community Incentive Grants, the City’s renovation grants, and more. The Waverley site hosts upwards of 200 birthdays a year, Fisher said, and socials, sports registration, tournaments, ice rentals, and canteen helps the centre’s bottom line.

South Winnipeg is planning to launch a new cricket program out of the community centre, dependent on approved funding. Fisher estimates start up costs to be more than $10,000 for the program.

Despite the high interest in community centre programming, Fisher said volunteers are still wanted.

“With more people you’d think that would help, but it just doesn’t seem to be translating,” she said. “As a volunteer board, we’re struggling with how to keep the program up and going when you don’t have enough volunteer support.”